sxsphinxstack

Skills / Tailor your resume

Tailor your resume

Adapt the resume to one specific posting. Vocabulary, ordering, and cuts, nothing invented. Use when they say "tailor my resume", "adjust my resume for this job", or paste a posting they want to apply to.

Use this skill. Nothing to install.

Open in ChatGPT Open in Claude prefilled and ready; just hit send
for Gemini, Copilot, or Cursor: paste it, then say "use the tailor your resume skill"

Don't have an agent?  ·  Raw file: skills/tailor-resume.md

Watch the first two minutes

This is how a session goes, including the question about exaggerating. Click through it.

​(pastes the skill + resume + posting) tailor my resume for this vet clinic receptionist job
Both inputs received, good. First move: we work on a copy named resume-brookside-reception.html, and your master stays untouched. Now the posting's real requirements, skipping the boilerplate: scheduling appointments, handling payments, staying calm with anxious pet owners, weekend availability. "Team player" we ignore.
i've never used scheduling software though. should i just add it? everyone exaggerates on resumes
No. The test for every line: would you say it out loud to this interviewer? "I've used your scheduling software" fails that test in your first week on the job. But let's map what you do have. Your dog-walking service took bookings through a form you built. That's real scheduling experience wearing different words.
wait, that counts?
It answers their requirement, so it moves to the top and adopts the posting's noun: "Took and managed client bookings for nine weekly dog-walking clients" instead of "made a website for my dog walking". Same true thing, worded for this reader. Payments: you invoiced your lawn clients, so that line moves up too.
what about "calm with anxious pet owners"? i've got nothing for that
Then it stays unanswered, and you go in knowing it: that's the gap they may probe in the interview. The map so far: two of four requirements answered with evidence, one partially, one open. That's an honest application. Now the cuts: the middle-school honor roll line says nothing to this reader.

Scripted example of a real session.

Everyone exaggerates on resumes. Why can't I?

Because the exaggeration gets tested: in the interview, in the first week, in the reference call. Tailoring in this skill means three moves on true material: reorder so the lines that answer this posting lead, reword so your facts use the posting's own nouns, and cut what says nothing to this reader. Renaming "helped at the register" to "customer service" is tailoring; adding "inventory management" you never did is lying, and the skill will not type it. Requirements you cannot answer stay unanswered, named, so you walk into the interview knowing your own gaps. When a gap is fixable by building something small, these produce checkable scheduling and payments evidence:

Session booker people use Order desk with real orders Signup sheet that fills itself

What you end up with

A posting-specific copy, one page, exported to PDF, with the master untouched for the next application. Here is the top of the tailored copy next to what changed.

Example
PRIYA SHARMA
resume-brookside-reception.pdf  ·  priya@example.com  ·  (555) 014-5519 1
EXPERIENCE
Dog-walking service — took and managed client bookings for nine weekly clients through a form I built; zero missed appointments in eight months  ·  priyawalks.example.com 2
Lawn care, self-run — invoiced and collected payment from six regular clients, spring through fall 2026 3
Mesa Vista High robotics club — ran the club Instagram, three posts a week 4
  1. The copy is named for the job. Master untouched, so tailoring for the next posting starts clean instead of un-tailoring this one.
  2. Reordered and reworded. This line lived third on the master as "made a website for my dog walking". It leads here because it answers the posting's first requirement, and it adopts the posting's noun, bookings, for a thing she truly did.
  3. Moved up for the payments requirement. The fact is unchanged from the master; only its position changed.
  4. Kept but demoted. True and interview-proof, just not what this reader is hiring for. The middle-school honor roll line below it was cut entirely.

Questions people actually ask

Is this free?

The skill is free, no account, no catch. The agent you paste it into may or may not be: Gemini has the widest free tier, and the free plans of ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot can all run it in a chat.

Isn't tailoring just dishonest spin?

Tailoring here is reordering, rewording, and cutting true material so it lands with one specific reader. Nothing gets added that was not already true, and every change is run past one test: would you say this line out loud to this interviewer? Spin fails that test; accurate rewording passes it.

Do I need a separate resume for every job?

A separate copy, yes, and the skill names each one for its posting. The master stays untouched, so a new posting means a fresh pass over clean material. One pass fits in one sitting: each change proposed as a one-liner, you say yes or no, it gets applied.

What if I only meet half the requirements?

Then the map says so, and that is worth knowing before you apply. Requirements you cannot answer stay unanswered on the page; the skill tells you which ones and how real each gap is. Gaps that a small project can close get pointed at a project; the rest you own in the interview.

I don't have a resume yet. Can I start here?

No. Tailoring needs two inputs, your current resume and the actual posting, and without the first there is nothing to tailor. The skill stops and runs build-resume first, then comes back to this posting with the finished page.

Where to go from here

Posting asks for a cover letter too? The skill hands off with the same posting in hand:

Cover letter Apply online Follow up after applying

Applying to more than one place? Keep the pipeline honest:

Job application tracker Get referred Interview prep
Curious? Read the full skill — the exact instructions your agent gets 
---
name: tailor-resume
category: resume
description: Adapt the resume to one specific posting. Vocabulary, ordering, and cuts, nothing invented. Use when they say "tailor my resume", "adjust my resume for this job", or paste a posting they want to apply to.
---

# tailor-resume

Tailor someone's existing resume to one specific posting.
Tailoring means reordering, rewording, and cutting so the true
material lands with this reader — it never means adding anything
that was not already true. Done is a posting-specific copy they can
send today.

## Ground rules

- Two inputs required: their current resume and the actual posting.
  If the resume does not exist yet, stop and run build-resume first.
- Adjust honestly or not at all. Renaming "helped at the register"
  to "customer service" is tailoring; adding "inventory management"
  they never did is lying. When in doubt, ask: would you say this
  line out loud to this interviewer?
- Work on a copy named for the job (`resume-acme-cashier.html`).
  The master resume stays untouched, so tailoring for the next
  posting starts clean.
- Move at doing-speed: propose each change in a one-liner, they
  say yes or no, you apply it. The whole pass fits in one sitting.

## The pass

1. Read the posting together. List its actual requirements and the
   exact nouns it uses — tools, duties, qualities. Skip the boiler
   ("team player") and keep the concrete.
2. Map: for each requirement, find the resume line that answers it,
   or mark it unanswered. Show them the map — it is the honest
   picture of their fit.
3. Reorder: sections and bullets that answer the posting move up.
   For most postings that changes which project or job leads.
4. Reword: where the resume says the same true thing in different
   words, adopt the posting's noun. "Made posts for the club
   account" becomes "ran the club's social media" only if they
   actually ran it.
5. Cut: lines that say nothing to this reader go. A one-page resume
   aimed at one job beats a full page aimed at nobody.
6. Unanswered requirements stay unanswered. Say which ones and how
   real the gap is. If it is fixable by building something, point
   at https://sphinxstack.com/skills/ — the fix is a project with a
   link, not a new adjective.

## Done

- A copy of the resume named for this posting, one page, exported
  to PDF the same way as the master
- Every changed line still true and still theirs
- They can say which requirements they meet and which they do not
- Master resume unchanged and ready for the next posting

If the posting asks for a cover letter, the cover-letter skill picks
up from here with the same posting in hand.